St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-04-28
sYGGIGNosCIsNI.
Chicago Nesss.


Nearly thirty years ago the '.Auto-
erat-of the Breakfast Table" pointed
out, to the dismay of the orthodox and
the profit of the "YOung Man Called
John"-who appropriated the remain
| ing three peaches with the remark
that "there was just one for each oi
him"-Dr. Holmes, we say, pointed out
| that every individual consists of three
distinct personalities. That is to say,
there is, first, the individual, as his
Maker knows him second, as he knows
| himself and, third, as he is known by
others. More recently the students OF
the human brain and nervous system
have been forced to advance the n.y.
pothesis that we are all endowed with
the potentialities of an indefinite num-
Der of personalities, any one of which
may be set into activity by variety
of causes. Only 10y such an assump-
ton Is it possible to account for the
cases which DIR. Hammond has called
| attention to i'll an article entitled
"Mysterious Disappearance" in late
number of The Forum.
Since DIR. HammOnd's article was
published newspaper readers have been
furnished with the details of the case
of the Rev. Ansel Bourne, which may
be briefly recalled rs Il typical illustra-
ton. In the latter part of January of
the current year stranger arrived in
| NorristOwn, Pa, rented Il store, stock
ed it, and began business in IL quiet,
business-like way which attracted no
attention and aroused no suspicion as
to any mental difficulty. Some two
months later one of his neighbors was
startled by a call from the conner,
who, in bewildered way, demanded
to know where he was, and after a
time explained that he was Rhode
Island Clergyman, could not account
for his presence in NOrristOwn, knew
nothing of any of his actions while
there, and could only recall that he had
drawn some money from the bank in
his native place two months before, at
ter which his life was blank. And
yet during the entire period his actions
had been apparently rational, although
certainly in nOwise suggestive of the
clerical profession = rather the re-
verse. For two months he had been
the sharp, shrewd business man during
business hours, and ii genial and by no
means straight laced companion after
his store was closed.
These instances of "mutipleX per-
sonality" have been. recognized by
alienists since the time of the historic
cases of Louis " and Zelda X. In one
state the patient is cheerful, frank,
generous; in another mOrOse, tactiturn,
misery now belligerent and then the
most peaceable of mOrtals; by turns
mendacious and truthful, the soul OF
honor and the most depraved of
wretches, reveling in immortality, and
leading the life of an ascetic. That
the different states are due to changes
in the physical activity of different
PORTIONS of the brain is now the accept
ed theory, borne out by experiment.
This activity may be set UP, modified,
perverted, or totally arrested 10y di-
sease; but it may also. be caused 10y
the influence of one will over another,
as in the familiar illustrations of hyp-
nOtism. A few years ago DR.. Ham
mOnd hypnOtized IL young man before
the New York Medico-Legal society,
| causing him to. commit imaginary
thefts, assaults, etc, and the phenOm-
ena are now the common property OF
the medical lecture-rOOm. Hammond
has given the name "syggignOscism'
to this condition, as more accurately
| descriptive than the terms hypnoism
and Braidism, the condition being the
agreement of one mind with another
q state of automatism in which acts
are. performed without the conscious
| willing of the subject.